Menu Monday: Dinners for the rest of March 2011

Well it is obvious I am quite behind on my menu posts... yep no excuses. However, I decided it might just be slightly easier (on me) if I just went ahead and posted our menus for the rest of the month. So here goes:
(Given the fact that this is going to be a lot, I won't be posting breakfast or lunch menus in this post. If I change my mind and feel like posting breakfast menus for the rest of March I will do it in a separate post.)

Monday. March 14:

• Baked Potatoes. Always a favorite. We usually do butter, sour cream, shredded cheese, and bacon bits on our potatoes. This week I also made a cheese sauce and ate my potato with cheese sauce, ham, green peas, and green onions. YUM! *A little tip on making baked potatoes, after you have washed your potatoes and pricked them with your fork coat the entire potato in olive oil and then a hefty sprinkling of kosher salt. Bake them at 425 for roughly an hour (depending on potato size) and you won't regret it.
  

Tuesday. March 15:

• Penne Rustica. If you haven't tried this yet you haven't lived. Although, there is a strong chance you will live longer than me do to the large amounts of heavy cream I have consumed...
  

Wednesday. March 16:

• Chinese/Costco/Five Guys. It was a late night shopping and what more can you say, we got hungry.
  

Thursday. March 17:

• Lasagna. It was a Relief Society function and so the lasagna was provided by Costco. One day I promise to post our favorite lasagna recipe... just not today.
  

Friday. March 18:

• Chicken Pot Pie... Soup. Okay, this is going to be an experiment. Cooper, my 4 year old loves chicken pot pie (we use this recipe) but he doesn't so much like the crust. He keeps asking me if I can make him a soup with chicken, potatoes, corn, and peas. I have leftover corn and peas from Sunday and Monday respectively and so I am going to play around and see what I get. I'll post what we come up with if it is a success.
  

Saturday. March 19:

• Hawaiian Haystacks
  

Sunday. March 20:

• Chicken Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Country Gravy. This has got to be one of my husband's favorite meals (and mine too) I just love country gravy and this meal is so homey and delicious. Mmm... we are both excited just thinking about it.
  

Whoa! Jr. Miss week for me this week so everything has got to be make ahead or 2 second simple. Here is what I've come up with:

Monday. March 21:

• French Dip Sandwiches. Yum. One of my favorite sandwiches of all time. Some thinly sliced deli roast beef, swiss cheese, hoagie or french bread subs, and some aus jus. Delicious.
  

Tuesday. March 22:

• Chicken Tortellini Bake. We thought we would give this a try this week. I've got some extra tortellini in the fridge and Landon, my youngest, seems to think it is the best ever. As always, if we love it lots you will see it appear on the blog.
  

Wednesday. March 23:

• Santa Fe Soup. This recipe is VERY similar to my mom's taco soup recipe which everybody loves... except husband. For some reason husband never thought he loved my mom's recipe, but he did love this one (probably because he didn't realize it was essentially the exact same recipe... and I used smaller tomatoes) Either way, both are worth trying.
  

Thursday. March 24:

• Meatballs with Cream Sauce. I'm excited to try this recipe. I'll be sure to post our reactions. As a side note, the site this recipe came from has a lot of meatball recipes and I have tagged everyone of them into my delicious account. Here are their links for you as well. If you try them be sure to share. Teriyaki Meatballs, Pineapple Meatballs, Sweet and Sour Meatballs.
  

Friday. March 25:

• California Chicken Yet another one to try. If you haven't noticed the trend yet, all of my to-try recipes this week are coming from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. If you feel like wasting 2 hours of your day looking at one delicious looking recipe after another head on over there. But don't blame me when your house looks like you've neglected your children for the better part of the day mmkay?
  

Saturday. March 26:

• Hot Hoagies This is the actual night of Jr. Miss so my family will need something simple and filling. Here is to hoping this is it.
  

Sunday. March 27:

• Cola Pot Roast
  

Monday. March 28:

• Cheeseburgers and Fries Depending on how ambitious I feel we might pair this with one of our favorite side salad recipes: Pasta Salad or Frito Salad. I might even go for homemade hamburger buns, just because they are delicious.
  

Tuesday. March 29:

• Asian Lettuce Wraps We have a copy cat recipe for PF Chang's lettuce wraps which is really yummy, but it makes far too much for my little family. I decided to try this recipe since I really love lettuce wraps.
  

Wednesday. March 30:

• Chicken with Cream Cheese and Black Beans... in the crockpot We've tried very yummy things similar to this but without the cream cheese. Being the firm believer in adding extra calories that I am I figured "why not?"
  

Thursday. March 31:

• Pork Chops and Funeral Potatoes My mom had such rave reviews for this recipe she posted that I am excited to try it out. I grew up in a pork chop eating family but my husband didn't and so he is never really chomping at the bit to try pork chops. However, my daughter loves them and we rarely, almost never, have them on the menu. So this month we do. Now, I'm pretty sure everyone has a recipe for funeral potatoes. If I am mistaken please let me know and I will post it. (Actually, I'll probably post it anyway... eventually.)